Categories

Already my first project done. I found this model in my basement this morning. I’ve had it, what, 15+ years? How many times did it hit the table in that time? Not one that I recall! I got Woodbine Designs Not Aliens Colonial Marines at Historicon so I’m keeping this baby and putting it to work. When I found it, it was missing 3 wheels and the turret. Some digging and luck turned them all up. A bit of glue and she is good to go!

This is what I’m talking about. This baby you can still get here online. Who wouldn’t want 17 quid in their pocket all for the cost of 3 drops of superglue? I know I would and this is a pretty doable project – right up there with several of the others I have planned to finish. The key is – are the elements of this project that can combine with other projects? The more overlap you can find the better as it maximizes your work. A one off building only good for one project? Don’t waste your time. A building or model you can re-use in many projects – that is a winner!

This model could use some more paint. It looks cool, though, so it will be a popular piece to have on the table.

Just after my last Battlefield 3 video I lost my 2nd Xbox 360. I had bought a spare but it died a few months ago and I opted to wait to repair it. Well, play the violin, both died due to electrical surge (possibly from a bad brick) and neither could be repaired for less than replacement cost. Yeah, ouch. So I am not without a backup plan. Last June I pre-ordered the Limited Edition Star Wars Kinect Xbox 360. Yeah, delayed until early April. In the mean time I am going back to playing games with figures and loving it. Today’s battle report mixes and Xbox theme with miniature wargaming – I used Halo Figures for my first game of Ambush Alley Games’ Tomorrow’s War!

Tomorrow’s War – AAR of the first game

Tomorrow’s War is a platoon based game of near future combat. It is based upon the popular Force on Force game and cousin to Ambush Alley – the game that started it all. Where Ambush Alley focused on the Asymmetric war, Force on Force focuses on Equivalent forces fighting each other but is able to handle the COIN operations as well.

While I have played Force on Force in the past, I’ve never been the one to run it. I wanted to have a set of rules that would allow me to run all of my old science fiction figures and Tomorrow’s War certainly fits the bill. So the first out of the Basement were the Halo Clix of which I have what science describes as a “shit tons” worth of figures. It became almost no problem recreating the forces from what I had. The first scenario, “Lost and Found” was trivial to recreate excepts for one issue – it calls for troops that have the future equivalent of the Squad Automatic Weapon (aka ‘SAW’). In the Halo Universe there isn’t anything that matches up with that so I had to get creative. For Covenant forces I declared the Carbine was the SAW. For the Spartan’s, any Spartan that was duel wielding weapons had the same firepower as a SAW. It was an easy and expedient way of dealing with it. The rules are generic enough that they can be bent to almost any theme.

Spartans look at the objective from cover

In the photo below We can see a nice close up of the figures. A Master Chief is the overall Squad Leader. The Spartan with the rocket launcher is the grenadier and the one duel wielding the needlers is the SAW. Other weapons used as substitutes are Fuel Rod Guns for Grenadiers and Covenant Carbines for SAWs.

For the objective I used some older (1990’s) models from the Kryomec game. These habitats make great science fiction buildings and are great as our primary objective point. The ODST soldier is perfect for the downed pilot that the Spartans are trying to rescue.

Objective: rescue downed pilot holed up in this cluster of buildings

For color I added a stand in for a crashed Pelican. This drop ship comes from the Grendel line of miniatures. I think it might be a late 1980’s model or early 1990’s. I don’t know if it went to any game system but it works well as a 28mm figure. I’ve had it for years.

Crashed Pelican - used simply as set dressing

The water hazard posed no difficulty in crossing. The banks were considered cover for any element lined up along them that wasn’t moving. The river sections are just thin MDF painted with the edges flocked. It works well enough. The bridge section is one piece. That bridge isn’t removable and isn’t wide enough for large 28mm vehicles. It is barely wide enough for 20mm vehicles. I believe it was meant for 15mm or smaller scale vehicles.

The Bridge to Desert Station Tango

The figure is the ODST soldier just praying the Marines get him in time.

For the majority of the game the Covenant remained hidden in Ambush. They had greater numbers but their technology class (in this scenario at least) is less than the Spartans. I used a mixture of Grunts, Jackals, Elites, one Brute and one Zealot to make up the opposition. While I did cause some damage when initiating my ambush attacks, the reaction fire from the Spartans was often devastating.

Kill Check!

Note that while the Spartan fireteam here took 25% casualties, my larger force of xenos took 100%! In Tomorrow’s War you aren’t dead until a casualty/first aid check is done. However in order for that to happen you need a least one friendly withing cohesion distance (2″). We did see the rules specifically state that when a full element is rendered as casualties it remains that way until another friendly unit comes to the rescue. With these merciless Spartans passing through though, unopposed, we determined that they would simply kill check every “dink in the drink” and removed them from play. Right or wrong that is what we did.

Measuring Distance

Measuring distance is nice when you are checking to see if the enemy is in optimal distance. given the short engagement ranges in this game, EVERYTHING in LOS is in effective range. Optimal range just adds a die to the fire power roll. The Spartans didn’t really need it. They had no trouble plastering xenos without mercy!

Alien flora offers some cover

These horrifying alien plants were nice cover. The terrain is naturally made here in Tennessee. Just go walking one of the green ways covered in black walnut trees in late summer or early fall and you can gather up big bags full! Just a few pocketfuls gathered one day were enough to make a nice alien mangrove.

Charge weapons! Aim! Fire!

This battle line did me in. Two fire teams, one reduced the other expanded by the squad leader finished off the final xeno squad and rescued the pilot.

I have to say we had a great time playing this game. I took the time to print out the Fog of War cards and trim them nicely (worth the effort) and to find and print out quick reference sheets. Some were better than others. One that covered the very basics of play proved to be the best. You can find them in the forums at http://AmbushAlleyGames.com. We had some questions about the timing of some things but the rules really are quite clear once you can find them. Organizationally they are a bit spread out but for the most part not too difficult to search.

Site Search

Recent Activity

We had a great game of I’m Your Huckleberry this weekend. I tweeked the carbine stats just a bit to bring it more inline with the Rifle at all ranges under LOS. I then came up with a game that would feature Legends (4 skill points). Originally it was going to be a 6 player […]

It is my belief that any game that can be considered well balanced, must involve some hidden information and a complete rejection of Nash Equilibriums in tactical decisions. While those Equilibriums are good when the game involves cooperation between subsets of players, they are harmful when it comes to individual tactics. There must always be […]

You know it’s the end of a long editing cycle when the biggest problems you are encountering are kerning issues with your font on the charts! I’m Your Huckleberry has been in a long development processes for a little over 3 years. The first edition was in March of 2014. The biggest impact it has […]

An evolutionary update is in the works for the ACW game Devil to Pay. After 4 years of running these at conventions we have a few reasonable rule updates that will improve the game without changing it too much. There are various abuses we have seen that are being tweaked out of existence. They were […]

I finally have some time and I’ve updated the Yard Sale with tons of miniatures from the Napoleonic period. These are all marked 50% off of retail. All proceeds go to the widow of a local war gamer, and the figures come from his large collection. Help out his family this Christmas!

It’s been a busy day. A couple of days ago I was in a car accident and my car was totaled. Luckily no one was injured and we both had insurance. I spent today looking at cars. It wasn’t a bad experience. There are a lot of models out there but the technology has changed […]